More men taking jobs in female-dominated profession of Japanese airline cabin crew

More men are taking jobs in the traditionally female-dominated profession of Japanese airline cabin crew as smaller airlines actively look to distinguish themselves from their large domestic rivals. The increasingly physical nature of the work in combination with the growing need to deal with unruly or drunk passengers, mean “soradan” (airmen) are being seen in the skies above Japan in larger numbers.

The change also shows Japan’s airline industry is slowly modernizing and gender roles are beginning to reflect those considered normal across much of the world.

Koichi Ito, 38, joined Star Flyer, a midsize carrier based at Kitakyushu Airport in Fukuoka Prefecture, as a flight attendant after a stint working in a hotel. Ito said as a student he was impressed with male flight attendants he would see aboard foreign carriers.

Star Flyer currently has some 160 cabin crew, including eight men, and plans to hire six more male attendants by next summer.

“The use of male cabin attendants is effective in impressing passengers that we offer a different service from big airlines,” said a Star Flyer public relations official.

At Jetstar Japan, a low-cost carrier based in Narita, Chiba Prefecture, men account for some 15 percent of all flight attendants.

Men currently account for around 1 percent of the flight attendants at both of Japan’s two major airlines Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways — considerably smaller than the 40 percent at Singapore Airlines and the 10 percent at Korean Air, South Korea’s major airline. Foreign airlines employ many men as cabin crew members, reflecting the difference in Japanese airlines’ concept of hospitality.

A PR official from Air France, where today more than 30 percent of cabin attendants are men, noted that France has a modern culture in which men work widely across the service industry.